TOP Tyneside football agent Ian Elliott’s career is in ruins today after he admitted mis-managing a Premiership star’s accounts.

The 54-year-old has been spared jail after pleading guilty to a charge of improper accounting, relating to the time he worked for Liverpool midfielder Stewart Downing.

But Elliott, of Whickham, Gateshead, is now banned from running a company for 10 years.

And the lavish lifestyle of a football agent is now but a memory as he faces financial ruin following the case at Doncaster Crown Court yesterday.

During his 24-year career, Elliott has also represented former Newcastle United stars Keith Gillespie and Paul Gascoigne.

Elliott admitted creating false invoices and failing to provide proper information for tax returns for work he had done for Downing while the midfielder was playing for Middlesbrough.

The former Fifa-approved agent had denied four further charges of fraud, of which he was acquitted after the Crown offered no evidence.

The charges, which relate to 2007 and 2008, came to light after Elliott’s companies were investigated by HM Revenue and Customs, the court heard.

Elliott, who once had a reputation as one of the North East’s top agents, was acting as secretary of Stewart Downing Promotions Ltd, a firm set up to manage the player’s celebrity endorsements and other matters which he went on to direct.

He also ran his own firms – a promotions company and a kitchen supplier, which Downing used.

Simon Pentol, defending, said married father Elliott was now working as a commission-based salesman and kitchen fitter and living in rented accommodation, in Swalwell, Gateshead. He now earns around £20,000 a year, he said, and will never enjoy the privileged lifestyle of a football agent again.

“He’s financially ruined,” Mr Pentol added. “Mr Elliott fell short and he knows that. His otherwise lucrative business as a football agent has come to an end as a result of this.”

Ex-Royal Navy boxing champ Elliott had pleaded guilty to failing to comply with a duty to keep accounting records from March 2007 to March 2008 for Stewart Downing Promotions Ltd.

He admitted a new charge of false accounting when the case came to Doncaster on Monday and the Crown decided not to proceed with any of the other charges.

Elliott, who now lives at Kipling Court in Swalwell, was initially arrested in 2008.

Downing, who parted company with him earlier that year, made the complaint to police, alleging that his former agent had mishandled his financial affairs.

Elliott’s route into the business of sports management was almost as dramatic as his downfall.

The one-time apprentice electrician became close pals with former Newcastle United star Chris Waddle when Elliott did some decorating work at Waddle’s Gateshead home and the friendship inspired him to change careers.

In 2006 Elliott told how he escaped the BBC Panorama investigation into illegal payments between agents, known as ‘bungs’.

During the probe a phoney agent was used to attempt to catch out high-profile football figures. But following revelations of corruption Elliott spoke of the integrity of the North East game.